


Orchids and Aloe

by tsunamiroll



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Grief/Mourning, Hopeful Ending, Mentions of childbirth, Past Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-02 18:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24401485
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tsunamiroll/pseuds/tsunamiroll
Summary: Sakura looks down at the stick in her hands, and briefly wonders if she hates Sasuke.ORSakura agrees to bear Sasuke's child, but nothing more.
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura & Uzumaki Naruto, Haruno Sakura & Yamanaka Ino
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Orchids and Aloe

Sakura looks down at the stick in her hands, and briefly wonders if she hates Sasuke. 

The test is innocuous, and she honestly didn’t need it to confirm what she has known for a week now. She hadn’t put hours and hours into learning how the human body works and how chakra flows through it only to not recognize the monumental change that was happening in her own body. 

The two lines on the stick just cemented the fact that the feelings churning in her stomach were not just grief and loneliness. Sakura clenches her hands around the test, and bows her head as tears start to prick in her eyes.

She decides that yes and no: she does hate him, but not for this. She hates that he is hundreds of miles away from this, and that he will stay that way for a long period of time. She can’t blame him, the war was brutal and he of all people would want to run away from its destruction, but she can hate him.

* * *

The first person to find out about it is, unsurprisingly, Hinata. 

The Konoha Twelve (Eleven now, Sakura has to keep reminding herself, and she ignores the wave of grief that comes with the correction. It will be easier as time goes, she promises herself) is gathered in what has become weekly meetups, opportunities for them to forget what has happened to them and emulate the carefree times from when they were harmless children in the Academy and not trained killers.

Kiba and Naruto are rowdy and laughing and slinging back as many shots as their bodies can hold. Shino, Shikamaru and Chouji watch as Ino drowns herself in alcohol, and Sakura flinches as the blonde knocks painfully into her shoulders. On the other side of her, Sai is carefully and neatly knocking back shots, smiling politely at whoever it is that keeps replacing them. TenTen is sitting by a Lee, accompanying him in his sobriety, and the two have their heads bowed together. Sakura doesn’t want to think about them.

Hinata is stuck next to Naruto and Shikamaru, her cheeks rosy from her drink. Sakura is hyper aware of the girl’s eyes lingering on her belly. Naruto roars next to her and topples backwards off his chair. The shy girl’s only reaction, bless her, is a small smile and a nod of acknowledgement, before she takes a tiny sip of her drink and glances down at the blonde, whose shoulders are now shaking, and he is somewhere between laughing and crying.

Sakura looks away again, and her eyes burn. She downs her drink and challenges Sai to an arm wrestling match. Kiba hoots at her from across the table, and the noise is almost loud enough to get rid of the static that is ringing in her ears.

* * *

The second person to find out is Ino. 

They are in a significantly more sober environment this time. Sakura decides to visit Ino’s flower shop on her way back from her shift at the hospital. The temporary homes that house the displaced from the war are nearby, only a short walk away. Sakura fell into that category after Pein’s invasion.

Sakura pushes the door open and a bell tinkles, announcing her presence. Ino looks up from behind the counter.

“Hey! Long time no see!” She says easily, before going back to arranging some flowers. 

“I saw you just this weekend.” Sakura says, but she knows what the other girl means. There hasn’t been time for the two of them to hang out together in a long time. Sakura tries not to think about the reasons.

Sakura wanders throughout the store, looking at different vases and different flower arrangements. She spots an arrangement that catches her eye. A single pink orchid stands, and wrapped around it is aloe, the two plants completing each other. The flower meanings come to her after an instant, and words from her kunoichi teacher that were buried underneath Kakashi’s quiet advice and Tsunade’s yelling emerge. Orchids for fertility, aloe for grief. She wants to laugh at how relevant the meanings are to her life.

She can’t stop herself from picking it up gently and walking to the front of the store. She takes care not to jostle the orchid too much, it is small compared to the aloe that swamps around it. Ino looks up from her arrangement as she places it on the table.

“How much?” She reaches back for her wallet, and that is when Ino realises. Sakura sees her eyes widen as they take in the flowers, and then travel to her stomach. She isn’t showing, not yet, but the Yamanaka wasn’t head of Torture and Investigation for nothing, she supposes. Ino tells her the amount after she rips her eyes away, and Sakura hands the money over without commenting on it.

She has no reason to stick around in the shop after she makes her purchase, but she does anyway. It’s been a month since she found out she was carrying Sasuke’s child, and it has all been spent ignoring it. She looks over at Ino, who is glancing at her every now and then, and remembers how excited the woman used to be whenever one of their teachers got pregnant back at the Academy. Sakura finds herself longing for the joy that comes with motherhood. The joy that is _supposed_ to come with motherhood.

“So,” Ino leans on the counter, and Sakura can’t help the wave of relief that washes over her at the playful smirk that crosses Ino’s face. “How long?”

Sakura lets out a breath. “Only a month.”

She doesn’t ask about the father, and Sakura is immensely grateful. 

Ino slides her apron off, folding it neatly on the counter. Her blue eyes glimmer. She steps out from behind the counter and grabs Sakura’s arm.

“Come on, let’s go.”

Sakura stumbles. “Go where?” She flails an arm at the bouquet that she bought, and Ino just waves it away.

“We’re going to celebrate!” Ino gives her a blinding smile, and Sakura loses focus for a bit. Her flower arrangement lays forgotten on the counter, next to Sakura’s purchase.

This is the first time she’s considered this baby to be worth celebrating.

* * *

Ino insists they visit a maternity store, because, as she says, there was absolutely no way that Ino was going to let future-heavily-pregnant-Sakura be anything less than fashionable. Sakura hated the baby less and less with each shirt and dress that Ino goaded her into buying, and when she leaves the store with two shopping bags full of clothes, she is happy for the first time in ages. 

Their next stop is a furniture store, and Ino does not care at all that Sakura isn’t living in the place that she hoped she will be when the baby arrives. She has to know exactly what she is going to buy, Ino says, or she will be floundering when the time comes. Sakura makes the mistake of pointing out that the baby was Sakura’s, not Ino’s, so shouldn’t Sakura decide these things on her own? and Ino turns to her with the most vicious look on her face. Sakura shuts up pretty quickly then, and so Ino bounces from crib to crib, making sure Sakura knows which ones had Ino’s approval.

After that, Ino pesters her about prenatal vitamins, and Sakura balefully admits that she isn’t taking any. That earns her a hit upside the head and a lecture about how she shouldn’t call herself a medic if she is going to ignore such vital things. Ino drags her to a civilian pharmacy and buys enough vitamins to last the whole pregnancy, and Sakura apologises to the cashier while Ino isn’t looking for the sheer volume that the other girl is creating.

The two of them sit on a bench across from Ino’s shop, once the shopping is over. The sun dips low in the sky as Sakura squints at it, noticing how late it is. The various things that she has purchased are neatly tucked into the two bags that rest by her feet. Ino sits next to her, her hands in her lap and her eyes closed. Sakura observes her friend for a while before tilting her head up towards the sky. 

Purples and pinks splash across the sky as the sun nears the horizon, the clouds gaining an orangish hue and floating gently across the sky. Sakura can feel the energy of the day being swept away in the changing sky, replaced with something that only the night can bring.

“Have you told him yet?” The words are so quiet that Sakura could pretend she didn’t hear them. She really wants to, but she clears her throat to answer anyways.

“I haven’t.” Ino nods, and wordlessly holds a hand out. Sakura takes it, and Ino squeezes. She drops them into her lap, and leans her head against the bench, watching the sky turn darker and darker. 

They stay like that until the moon shines high in the sky, and Sakura finally decides to go back to her tiny flat. 

She wakes up in the morning to find the orchid and aloe deposited neatly on the front door. There is a tag along with it, fastened around the base of the arrangement, and Sakura smiles as she reads it.

_Your secret is safe with me._

* * *

She tells the rest of the Konoha Twelve (Eleven. It won’t hurt, one day, it won’t, it _can’t_ ) at the meetup after her day out with Ino. She makes her announcement, and the silence where a father’s name should have gone is replaced with Ino’s loud cheering and Hinata’s quiet congratulations. Everyone else quickly joins in, and Sakura finds herself smiling shyly as she accepts congratulatory thumps on her shoulders from the guys, and gentle touches on her hands from the girls.

Naruto catches her outside the bar with a warm hand on her shoulder. She slows down so that he can walk next to her, and he doesn’t remove his arm. She doesn’t ask him to.

She meets his eyes and feels a pang. Twin pools of midnight blue are staring at her, and she can easily read sadness and sorrow and grief in them.

“It’s…” He trails off before starting again, and his eyes gain some sheen of determination. “It’s Sasuke’s, isn’t it?”

“She’s,” Sakura corrects, and Naruto’s face sags. There is no real way that Sakura should know the gender of her baby, it has only been two months, but she knows this in the same way that she knows the scars on the other boy’s cheeks.

“She.” Naruto repeats, and Sakura gives him a small smile. He removes his hand from her shoulder and lets it hang between them. The night is cool, not yet taking on the humidity of summer, and Sakura is content to just bask in the moonlight with the boy next to her.

“Are you guys- Are you guys-“ Naruto can’t finish his statement but Sakura understands. Naruto was always so easy to read.

“No, we aren’t.” Sakura can’t deny that the relief on Naruto’s face sends a current of hurt through her. 

“Oh… okay.” Naruto slips his hands into his pockets and his eyes flick down to her belly before turning back to the sky. The moon is reflected beautifully in them, and Sakura drops a hand down to her belly.

“Naruto…” Sakura starts. Naruto looks back at her. “Will you be the godfather? I know that Sa- that he and I agree on that.”

Sakura is stricken by the intense happiness that washes over his face, and Sakura has to look away from the blinding smile that he gives her as he nods.

* * *

When she does finally decide to send a letter to Sasuke informing him of her pregnancy, it has been six months. Her stomach is now rounded, not too obvious to those who aren’t looking for it, but still obvious enough that word will reach him by different means if she doesn’t tell him now.

She starts the letter three times before she finally throws her caution out the window, and stabs the words _I am pregnant with your child_ into the paper. That is all she writes, eventually, although she stares at the little slip for almost an hour before she finally gets up to find a hawk. She doesn’t sign it; she knows that he will know who it is from. 

She sends it before she can regret it, and rushes to the bathroom to throw up into the toilet right after. 

* * *

The civilian quarters of the village are finally rebuilt, no thanks to Kakashi-sensei’s lazy overseeing of it rather than Naruto’s immense guilt towards its destruction. 

Sakura goes to see where her house used to stand, and has to hold back the grief that threatens to overwhelm her. 

The house that replaced it is not identical to the one that was flattened, but just standing there she can imagine her mother calling out for her to get inside, and her dad trimming the plants in the lawn. 

Both had been killed in Pein’s invasion. Both were unknown victims of the war.

Both were gone.

She really wants to buy this new house for herself, but she is no longer a civilian, and instead she makes her way to the shinobi parts of the village. She can afford a nice house, a really nice house if she budgeted well. Being the head of the hospital paid quite nicely, even if it did come with long, long hours and unbelievable amounts of paperwork. 

She settles on a flat that is close to the hospital. There is one bedroom, one bathroom, a modest living area, and a small kitchen. It isn’t overly spacious, but until the baby arrives, it will be a little more than comfortable for Sakura.

Naruto and Ino offer themselves up as her move-in crew, and Sakura mostly sits back as Ino barks orders at Naruto. The last thing that makes it into her new home is her orchid, which has grown quite nicely over the months, and takes up the center spot of the coffee table that sits between a wall to ceiling window facing the Hokage mountain and a couch.

Once all the furniture has been moved into the house, Ino and Naruto both collapse onto the couch, proceed to have a cat fight, and then both give up because they are too tired. 

Sakura snorts at the scene that they make, Ino’s feet in Naruto’s face and vice versa. 

“I’m guessing you are staying for dinner?” She calls out, and their heads shoot up simultaneously in agreement. Sakura laughs and makes her way to the kitchen. 

She has just enough food to make ramen for everyone, and when she announces this she doesn’t need to imagine Naruto’s look of joy because suddenly he is right there, sitting at the kitchen counter, eagerly waiting for his meal.

Soon Ino is lured into the kitchen as well, and they descend into easy banter. Sakura smiles as Ino teases Naruto about something, and he digs an elbow into her side, and then Ino pushes him and his eyes go wide with panic as the stool briefly loses its balance before righting itself again.

“So Sakura, any updates on-“ Naruto wiggles his eyebrows and fails at being discreet as he looks at her belly.

Sakura rolls her eyes. “You can say it, you know. You _are_ going to be the godfather.” 

Ino freezes, and turns delicately on her stool to face Naruto. She clears her throat. 

“You are the _what?_ ” Ino screeches. Naruto leans away from her, and Sakura giggles. 

“How come you didn’t tell me, come on, why do you get to be!-“

“Ino, calm down. I still haven’t chosen a godmother.” Sakura says, and that appeases the Yamanaka easily. Naruto rubs at his ears, and Sakura reaches out to bat at his head. He dodges easily but sends her a smile.

“Yes, I will gladly accept.” She answers the unsaid offer with a saintly expression as she gets up from her seat and bows, and Sakura’s face fills with a smile. She hadn’t actually thought about a godmother until this moment, but _of course_ it would be Ino.

Naruto shoves Ino to dispel the sudden sentimentalism, which makes her fall off her stool, and Naruto laughs, and Ino laughs, and Sakura laughs, and she can feel tiny feet kicking into her belly, and she thinks _maybe this won’t be so bad._

* * *

Sakura realises that her labor has started while she is making tea. She feels a contraction coming on, and she is amazed by it. The feeling is just like how it is described in the medical textbooks, but at the same time, very, very different. She calls Ino, and within the next ten minutes, the blonde arrives with another blonde in two.

Naruto is completely freaked out, and if Sakura wasn’t so focused on timing her contractions then she would’ve laughed at him. Ino explains the whole process of labor as Sakura goes through it, keeping her walking throughout her apartment. Her water breaks halfway through her first set of contractions, and she scrunches her nose as she watches Naruto clean it. 

“Naruto-“ She starts, feeling suddenly guilty for making him do it.

“It’s okay, Sakura-chan!” Naruto smiles cheerfully at her, and he finishes wiping away the fluids, “It’s the least I can do.”

Sakura is suddenly hit with the thought that someone else should be here, someone else should be doing the least they could possibly do to welcome their _own goddamn child-_

And then Ino runs a hand through her hair, and the thought is gone from Sakura’s mind.

“Let’s go to the hospital, yeah?” Ino says gently, right in time with the start of Sakura’s next stage of contractions.

Time blurs by and suddenly Sakura is being handed a freshly-washed baby swaddled in clean white. The nurse asks her what she wants to name her child, and she remembers the name that Sasuke had sent back in response to her announcement, and repeats it to the nurse. 

The baby, Uchiha Sarada, looks up at her and gurgles, and Sakura feels exhausted and worn out but she also feels a love that starts at her heart and extends deep into her bones. A hand on her arm makes her lift her gaze away from the baby in her arms, and she sees Ino and Naruto looking at her. They both look tired, but both wear matching expressions of happiness.

Sakura looks back at the baby. Her baby. 

* * *

Sakura is allowed to leave the hospital the next day, with a prescription for pain medication. Ino and Naruto barely left her side the whole time, and Sakura has to fend the both of them off as they try to help her with every little thing. Sarada is carefully nested in a variety of blankets, and Sakura hasn’t let her leave her side either.

When they enter Sakura’s apartment, they silently agree to pile onto the couch. Sarada is held tightly in Sakura’s arms as she leans back against Naruto, and Ino’s head is right next to the little girl’s on Sakura’s stomach. The orchid on Sakura’s coffee tables has its head lifted, and Sakura can see another orchid bud peeking out from underneath the aloe that surrounds it

Sakura sighs in content, and looks away from the flower, and out the window, looking at the Hokage’s faces. She breathes in the scent of Ino and Naruto, and finally, after nine longs months, feels at peace.

**Author's Note:**

> wooo boy. so this was my birthday gift to myself, and it was supposed to look a lot different than this but uh... there you go! i hope you enjoyed it! please leave a comment if you did, or if i made a mistake or something. i proofread this once, and i wrote it at midnight oops. 
> 
> honestly i didn't think this piece would bash sasuke as much as it did, because i really like sasuke, but i really hate how kishi made sasusaku end up together when they have hurt each other so much, so i tried to fix that by making sarada sasuke's efforts to repopulate his clan, and not evidence of a loving relationship. 
> 
> also idk why i'm still here but this took me embarrassingly long to write, so please leave a comment or a kudos if you enjoyed it! now it's time for me to go to bed.


End file.
